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The CSAW Applied Research Competition (North America) assesses the top scholarly applied security research from the previous year. With eligibility limited to previously published papers, CSAW's "best paper award" has a reputation for drawing some of the best security research worldwide. Student authors whose papers are selected via the Preliminary Review are invited to present at CSAW Finals. For 2025, final events will be held in person at NYU. See https://www.csaw.io/research for more details.
Eligible Submissions
Eligible submissions include papers that meet the following four conditions:
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The paper’s topic is related to the design, application, implementation, or exploitation of security technologies.
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The research is already being used in practice or has the potential to be used in practice.
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The paper is published or camera-ready between 1 September 2024 and 31 July 2025 at the following venues: IEEE Security and Privacy 2025, USENIX Security 2025, SOUPS 2025, ACM CCS 2024, NDSS 2025, IMC 2024, CSCW 2024, PETS 2025, IMWUT/Ubicomp 2024, ACM CHI 2025. If your paper is published elsewhere, feel free to submit too, as long as the other 3 conditions are met (although we may give preferences to papers in the above venues in the case of ties).
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At least one of the paper’s authors is a student enrolled at a university in Canada, Mexico, or the United States as of November 1, 2025, and this student is available to present the paper as a poster in person during the CSAW Finals in New York University between November 5-7, 2025.
Submission Process
Submission portal
Papers are to be submitted via this Google Form.
Submission deadline
Submissions will be accepted through Friday September 26, 2025. All deadlines refer to AoE (Anytime on Earth) timezone.
Paper format
Papers should be submitted as a PDF file, maintaining the original template that was required by the publication venue. Reviews will be single-blind; reviewers can see the names of the authors, but the authors do not have visibility of the reviewers’ names.
Preliminary review process
After the submission phase closes, papers are reviewed and assessed by practitioners, academics, and industry experts.
Papers are assessed on the following dimensions:
- Novelty of Research
- Importance of Problem
- Potential Impact in Practice
- Current Application in Practice
- Real-world Technical and Social Impact
We anticipate that 15 papers will be selected to be the finalists. The finalists will be invited to fly into New York City and present their posters, all expenses paid for by New York University.
Finalist notification
All PC reviews will be completed by Sunday October 5, 2025. Submission authors — finalists and non-finalists — will be notified of their status via email no later than Monday October 6, 2025. Tickets and hotels will be confirmed on Friday 10 October 2025. NYU will pay for travel and accommodation for one student author per finalist paper.
Finalist teams will be asked to confirm the student author (“finalist”) who will present their team’s research at CSAW Finals. Typically, the first student author of the paper presents, but this is up to the finalist team to decide.
Following notification, and with the authors’ permission, a list of published papers will be posted on the CSAW website.
CSAW final event & locations
CSAW ’25 Finals will be held Friday November 7, 2025 in person — at New York University’s Brooklyn campus. A 1st and 2nd place winner will be announced on Saturday November 9, 2025.